Quotes about Symbolism

The ecclesial body was the sacramental reality to which the Eucharist pointed and in which it participated.

What is essential in a work of art is that it should rise far above the realm of personal life and speak to the spirit and heart of the poet as man to the spirit and heart of mankind.

Human marriage is only an illustration of our union with Christ. God ordained marriage to help us understand what it means to be in relationship with him.

Those who read the symbol do so at their peril.

Anthropologists observe that the world occupied by a human being comprises not only the surrounding land, water, sky, plant and animal life, human beings and works of human hands, but also a "symbolic reality," which is superimposed upon material reality.

The crucifixion should never be depicted. It is a horror to be veiled.

In the Louvre there is a picture, by Guido Reni, of St. Michael with his foot on Satan's neck. The richness of the picture is in large part due to the fiend's figure being there. The richness of its allegorical meaning also is due to his being there—that is, the world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck.

A pine tree standeth lonely In the North on an upland bare; It standeth whitely shrouded With snow, and sleepeth there. It dreameth of a Palm tree Which far in the East alone, In the mournful silence standeth On its ridge of burning stone.

The word which denotes the act of baptizing, according to the usage of Greek writers, uniformly signifies or implies immersion.

The spinning wheel means national consciousness and a contribution by every individual to a definite constructive national work.

Flowers are the hieroglyphics of angels. Loved by all men for the beauty of their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning.

The geographical pilgrimage is the symbolic acting out of an inner journey. The inner journey is the interpolation of the meanings and signs of the outer pilgrimage. One can have one without the other. It is best to have both.